This invention relates to a process for the protection of a fat or a food, cosmetic or pharmaceutical product containing a fat against oxidation and to the use of coenzyme Q as an antioxidant in a food, cosmetic or pharmaceutical product containing a fat.
It is known that the coenzyme Q (CoQ), or ubiquinone, which has been isolated from the lipids of mitochondria, is involved in the basic mechanisms of energy production by respiration, in the transport of electrons in mitochondria and in oxidative phosphorylation. Its antioxidant activity in biological media is known, cf. for example Littarru et al., Fats and Perspectives, Drugs exptl. clin. Res. X (7), 1491-496. However, in a different environment, such as a food, cosmetic or pharmaceutical product containing lipids, the oxidized form, namely quinone, could be expected to have no antioxidant activity because quinones are normally considered to be deactivation products of antioxidants of the hydroquinone type.